Mercy (A Novel) Paperback – April 1, 2001

The story revolves around Cameron and Allie MacDonald, in the small village of Wheelock, Massachusetts in the Berkshire. It is a town rich in Scottish history where the majority of residents are Scottish descendants, where weddings are ended with the Scottish tradition of a blood vow, where Cameron MacDonald is not only the chief of police but also the clan chief - all of which were expected of him to do. On what seemed to be a most ordinary day turns out to be a most extraordinary day for Cam and his wife of eight years; events on the day will lead them down a shaky path of questions, desires and wants. The 1st turn of events is when Jamie MacDonald, a cousin of Cameron's, commits an act of mercy by smoothing his cancer-ravaged wife Maggie in the Wheelock Inn. The 2nd turn of event is when Allie, the local florist, hires Mia, a blue-eyed exotic beauty with a knack for flower arranging. As Allie becomes involved with Jamie's case, Cam begins a love affair with Mia that is destine to bring his marriage to almost a point of destruction. Jamie tells Allie that a marriage is never "never fifty-fifty" and like him, Allie is the one the loves more.At points in the book I hated Cam for what he was doing to his wife yet at times so wanted him to find happiness with Mia - Cameron loves her for her free spirit to go places at a whim and Mia love Cam for stability and a place to call home. The love story of Jamie and Maggie is heart breaking. How do you kill the person that is your whole being? How do you ask that person to perform such an act, an act of mercy?Picoult's writing is like poetry for me and this book is no exception, especially her attention to the development of her central characters. The title of this book "Mercy" has dual meaning. The most obvious is the mercy killing of Maggie. But what is mercy? It is compassion or benevolence. I think this would apply to Allie towards Cam.I have read many reviews on this book I see a lot of people did not rate it well - maybe the fact that I listen to this book painted it differently for me but I loved the book. Jodi Picoult rarely disappoints me and never writes about subjects that are easy to swallow - and Mercy was no different.

Mercy is about the meaning of love and what it represents in marriage. Cam and Allie MacDonald are the married couple who represent love. Cam is the police chief and clan chief of Wheelock, Massachusetts. Allie owns and operates the local flower shop in town.The MacDonalds of Carrymuir came to Massachusetts in the late 1740s. Cam hadn’t given much thought to being police chief. It was once his fathers duty. It was both an honor and a mark of respect to protect and serve the people of Wheelock. When his cousin James arrives into town admitting to murdering his sick wife, Cam questions his sense of duty to the law. Questions of ethics comes into play as the grey area of morality and ethics rocks the town of Wheelock.Cam’s moral obligation to his wife gets tested when a Mia comes into town.This is my first read by Jodi Picoult. I’m sad it’s taken me this long to pick up one of her books knowing she’s written 26 novels. Her writing style is known for provoking the mind of readers with her controversial topics. I wanted to experience that gifted storytelling ability first hand. I started with a book published in 2001. This way if I like what I read I can read how her writing grows and develops over the years.I found Jodi’s writing style to be very informative and compelling. Everyone is correct when they say she provokes the minds of readers. This was the type of book in which I couldn’t shut my mind off from. I went to bed thinking about the topics presented in the story.Narrator:Alyssa Bresnahan is a female voice over artist who performed Mercy in its entirety. Let me just say when it comes to performing the male character voices in Mercy the sound was much too feminine. Other than that Alyssa did a phenomenal job voicing this book.The best way to experience Mercy was by listening to the audiobook while following along with my ebook. Alyssa performed all the Scottish words and her pronunciation of words was superb. I’m becoming a fan of audiobooks for this purpose not because I’m incapable of reading but rather I’m incapable of pronouncing words correctly.This was an English abridged audiobook. The listening time is 17 hours. I listened at 1.8x speed.